Some actors bring something special no matter the movie in which they're appearing, regardless of the size or nature of their role.  To say that Willem Dafoe is such an actor would be a dramatic understatement.  The Oscar-caliber actor has officially signed on to Relativity Media's Out of Furnace, an homage to gritty 1970s crime thrillers that follows a recently released convict as he sets out to avenge his brother.

Relativity Media officially announced the truly impressive principal cast of the film currently titled Out of the Furnace, a dramatic and textured homage to the thrillers of the 1970s, following a newly freed ex-convict out to avenge his brother.  How impressive is the cast?  It's led by Oscar winner Christian Bale, along with Star Trek and Avatar star Zoe Saldana as the female lead.  They're joined by two Oscar nominees: Gone Baby Gone's Casey Affleck and legendary actor/playwright Sam Shepard.

Just yesterday we saw a trailer for a happily morbid stop-motion animated feature about a young boy whose peculiarities have an impact on the entire community around him.  That trailer was for Tim Burton's Frankenweenie, but today we have a brand new trailer for a similarly themed stop-motion tale, the original story ParaNorman. 

The film looks like a funny and phantasmagoric ride, as seen in previous trailers, but this new preview gives a fuller idea of the film's plot.  Basically a young introvert who sees ghosts has to prove himself as a hero when an undead invasion arrives in his town.  That was the driest possible description I could provide, so watch the trailer to get a feel for just why ParaNorman is a movie get jazzed about.  Plus, there's a new official poster, too.

In last year's ensemble comedic caper Tower Heist, disgruntled employees in a luxury building decide to embark on a criminal enterprise evening the score after their ultra-wealthy boss cons them all in a massive Ponzi scheme.  In the spirit of the film, which arrives on Blu-ray and DVD this week, a sampling of the abundant bonus features from Tower Heist are available online now, after being successfully heisted from the Blu-ray (heisted with the explicit permission of Universal Pictures, of course).

Add Paradise Lost to the list of big-budget endeavors that won't be getting made any time soon due to a cost-conscious aversion to event movies that aren't sure things in these tough economic times.  The adaptation of John Milton's 345 year-old poem has was scheduled to begin production in Australia last month, but in December, Legendary Pictures put the project on hold in order to bring the budget down to a more palatable figure.  It seems that didn't work out, as the film, which was to star Bradley Cooper as Lucifer and tell the story of his hubris and fall from grace, has now been abandoned outright.

In the 17th Century, John Milton spent literally years composing one of the greatest English poems ever written, laboring well into his own blindness to create a properly grandiose epic retelling of Satan's war with God and fall from grace, as well as the creation of the human race.  So it was probably hubris to expect that Paradise Lost, a 3D action movie inspired by Milton's text, would make it to theaters without a hitch.  Under the direction of Alex Proyas, the film was set to begin production next month in Australia, but Legendary Pictures has temporarily postponed the start date in an attempt to get an escalating budget under control.

Hey look, it's an international trailer for ParaNorman, the 3D stop motion feature from Laika Entertainment.  Laika, if you're unaware, was responsible for 2009's Coraline, the wonderful 3D take on Neil Gaiman's awesome story.  Everything we've seen from ParaNorman so far suggests that the original film will effectively incorporate a unique, spooktacular comedic tone,  Plus, the stop-motion looks faultless, absolutely smooth yet still retaining that hand wrought charm inherent to the style.  This trailer zeroes in on the basic concept, laying out the notion that young Norman, voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee, can see and communicate with ghosts, but in a good way.  His skill comes in handy when zombies and all manner of ghoulish creatures surround the town, making young Norman the only one who can save the day.

Almost any proper heist movie is populated by an ensemble of unique characters, each playing a crucial and distinct role in the unfolding of a cleverly-constructed scheme to defraud a deserving bad guy of as much cash as possible.  The title Tower Heist should tip audiences off to the fact that the action comedy is a proper heist movie, but a new lineup of six character posters from the film leave absolutely no room for confusion.  Each poster shows a member of the cast along with the job in stealing a whole mess of cash from a Ponzi-scheming jerk confined to house arrest in his penthouse.  Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy lead things off as "The Mastermind" and "The Convict," respectively, while Gabourey Sidibe, Tea Leoni, Casey Affleck, and Matthew Broderick all get posters of their own.

Even John Milton, who dictated one of the finest works of poetry ever composed in the English language after literally years of serious work, would probably agree that Casey Affleck knocked it out of the park in his Oscar nominated leading turn in Gone Baby Gone, as directed by his older sibling Ben Affleck.  So assuming he's still alive almost 350 years after the poem's publication, Milton's probably pretty stoked that Affleck is in negotiations to play an angel loyal to god in Paradise Lost, a 3D action epic based on his truly classic work.  Not only that, but the gorgeous Camilla Belle is also likely to join the project as a certain apple-loving young lady who causes humanity's expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

Before the film eventually came to fruition under Steven Soderbergh, director Brett Ratner spent some time developing the Ocean's Eleven remake, so he's had a comedic heist movie in his bones for more than a decade.  He's finally getting the opportunity to exercise his ensemble caper muscles with Tower Heist, and he's doing so with hint of working-class indignation.  The first trailer for the film introduces Alan Alda as a millionaire Ponzi-schemer who cheats the employees of his high rise out of their pensions.  When he goes on house arrest in his penthouse, those employees, led by Ben Stiller and criminal mastermind Eddie Murphy, conspire to steal back $20 million in ill-gotten booty.  Check out the brand new trailer and the first poster for Brett Ratner's Tower Heist.